How Not To Be A Stalker
by B0gw0ppit
Summary: Rodney thinks his crush is a secret... but is it? Rodney/Chuck
1. How Not To Be A Stalker

Title: How Not To Be A Stalker

Author: B0gw0ppit

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my dog, my VW and my dreams.

Author's Note: I wrote this a while ago for a friend of mine but never bothered to publish it. I think it's ok though. Please review and let me know what you think.

There he was again, sitting in the same place, at the same consul, a small frown marring his boyish brow as he concentrated on his work. As Rodney watched surreptitiously, half hiding behind the door of Elizabeth's office, Chuck leaned over to another desk, his white t-shirt pulling tight across his chest. McKay's breath caught in his throat, and he swallowed roughly. Damn that boy was hot... Did he even realize it? Did he know just how many of the female contingent, as well as a fair few of the guys, made deliberate detours past the control room every day just lay eyes on him? Probably not. There was something so innocent, almost naive, about the young sergeant, something that had Rodney lying awake at night, wondering what it would feel like to touch him, to run his tongue along the line of his jaw, wondering how Chuck would react if McKay were ever to suggest such a thing.

He had taken to hanging around at lunchtime, checking to see when the tech took a break, then following him casually to the canteen. Rodney could be casual, he was the King of casualness when the need arose, and the need definitely arose when he hung around Chuck for too long, sometimes embarrassingly so. No one had noticed yet, at least Rodney didn't think so. He was pretty sure Sheppard would have said something if he knew, the way he had said something about that young marine Rodney had had the hots for a few months back. The scientist raised his hand gingerly to his chin now, as though the bruise was still there. Yep, way to go Sheppard, say it in _front _of the guy... really sensible.

A movement from the control desk brought McKay's attention back to the matter at hand, and he stiffened... quite literally... as the young sergeant rose from his chair, slinging his jacket loosely over his shoulder as he walked around the desk.

"See ya later Dan," he nodded to his nearest neighbor, clapping the guy on the shoulder as he passed him, "I'm going for some lunch."

Rodney's heart leaped to his throat, and he sidled out from his hiding place, following the young man down silent corridors toward the canteen. It always amazed him just how all these people, all the hundreds of new additions to the expedition, could still manage to be swallowed up by this vast city. You could walk for miles without seeing another soul, spend weeks in solitude if you should so desire. But Rodney did not desire that, no, right now he desired something quite the opposite. He desired company of a very specific kind... the company of one very young, very hot gate tech.

He licked his lips as he walked along, eyes on the ground in front of him as his mind drifted off into the depraved fantasy that was Meredith Rodney McKay's secret world. When at last he _did_ look up, it was to find an empty corridor in front of him, no sign of Chuck anywhere.

"Damn it..." he muttered aloud, and stopped, looking round frantically, over his shoulder, down an intersecting hallway, but to no avail. His quarry had slipped away while he had been dreaming about all the things he wanted to do to him.

"Looking for someone?" The voice startled him, and he jumped, spinning round to come face to face with the man himself.

"What? Where...? Wh..." Rodney stuttered, "No..."

He felt his voice squeaking as he denied the obvious, frantically wondering just where the hell the sneaky little bastard had been hiding. He swallowed, blue eyes wide as they stared into the big brown innocent gaze of the sergeant. Chuck was wearing a sly, amused little smile, and he took a small step toward Rodney as the scientist backed away.

"Oh," came the reply, such an innocuous little word, but it had Rodney's heart thudding hard against the wall of his chest as Chuck took another step. "That's a shame, because I was kinda hoping you were looking for me..."

Another step, and Rodney felt the hard wall against his back.

"What? Wh... Why...?" he squeaked, pressing himself further back against the wall, his hands flat either side of him.

This was ridiculous! Why was he backing away? He wasn't dangerous...

But as he stared with all the intensity of a rabbit in headlights into those deep, dark, brown eyes, he saw a definite dangerous glint there, albeit an amused one. He gulped again as Chuck took another step forward, almost touching him now, close enough to feel his warm breath against his face.

"You've been watching me," Chuck stated, the tone of his voice sending shivers through Rodney's whole body as the tech leaned closer still.

Out of the corner of his eye Rodney saw Chuck's hands, his beautiful, artistic, dexterous hands, lean against the wall on either side of him, and he knew he was lost. He gulped and closed his eyes, breathing becoming shallow as he waited. Waited for what? Another punch? For Sheppard and co to jump out from an empty room and all have a good laugh at poor old Rodney who couldn't even stalk a guy properly? He didn't know. But he waited all the same.

"I thought maybe you might want something from me..."

That voice again, another shiver down his spine, even closer now, warm breath against his mouth, almost tasting him...

Then... then... He was gone. Nothing... no warm breath, no shiver-instilling voice, no long, slender fingers not quite touching his arms... Nothing.

Slowly, slowly, Rodney opened his eyes, and frowned at the emptiness before him. What the hell...? He pushed himself up away from the wall, and stepped out into the middle of the hall, spinning this way and that, then all the way around to see where he had gone. Nothing, he wasn't there. It was as if he never had been.

Rodney sighed, a heavy, defeated sigh, the breath he had been holding in anticipation leaving his body all at once. His shoulders slumped, and he turned to walk slowly back to the control room as Weir's voice came over the radio calling for a meeting. His mind was in turmoil. Had he dreamed it all? Had Chuck really been there? Or was it all just a figment of his highly over-stressed imagination, bringing all his pent up frustrations to the surface in one giant hallucination...

No, no, it couldn't have been that... It had been real... _He_ had been real. Rodney had felt his breath on his face for God's sake!

He walked up the steps, hardly looking where he was going, and into the conference room, glancing automatically to his right as he went through the door. He was there, back at his consul, the little frown creasing that perfect brow yet again. McKay squinted at him for a moment, wondering, confused, and in that split second Chuck glanced up. Rodney blanched, and Chuck winked, slowly, deliberately, the sly little smile back on his boyish face for an instant before being replaced once again by that professional frown of concentration. McKay's mouth dropped open in shock, and he felt heat suffuse his cheeks.

"C'mon McKay! You catching flies?" A hand whacked him hard on the back and he staggered forward, blinking out of his reverie as Sheppard marched past him.

Blinking, jaw slamming shut so fast he bit his tongue he turned to say something, but thought better of it, and followed the colonel meekly into the room, glancing back over his shoulder just one last time.


	2. How To Scare A Scientist

Title: How To Scare a Scientist

Author: B0gw0ppit

Disclaimer : I own nothing except my dog, my VW and my dreams. But if I did own Rodney I would get him to mend the TV.

Author's Note: This is basically the same story but told from Chuck's side. Enjoy... and review!

Of course Chuck knew. Chuck had always known that his cute good looks were one sure fire way of getting his pick of women. Before he came here he had played on it too, at first because they were there and he was a guy and that was what guys did wasn't it? Then, later, as he grew up and matured and realized that his eyes were being drawn more to the guys on the various air bases he was posted at than the girls, he did it to try to prove a point. To prove to himself and to everyone else that he was a red-bloodied male, that he liked women, that he didn't like men, not in _that _way.

As the years went by though, gradually the constant partying became more of a chore than a game. He seemed to live on automatic pilot, picking up the first decent woman that gave him the nod, going back to her place or his, more than halfway inebriated every night of the week, crawling out of bed in the early hours and sneaking away before she could ask for his phone number. He got into his fair share of trouble for it, either from irate boyfriends or from friends who couldn't bare to watch the girl breaking her heart over such a bastard, but the farce continued. In fact it continued until he got the chance to come to Atlantis. Sure, there was the _Don't ask don't tell_ enforcement, but still he couldn't bring himself to admit it, not even in the dark lonely hours before dawn when he would lay awake and struggle with the feeling of helplessness and frustration deep down inside. He never, ever let it show, those feelings of desolation, of a life wasted on self-denial and pretending. No, to everyone else he was still the life and soul of the party, the one guaranteed to be in the thick of any mischief that was to be found, on base or off. When he laughed everyone around him laughed with him, and no one knew that he was crying inside. After a while the fantasy life he had woven for himself had gone far too far to extricate himself, and he found himself trapped in a lie.

That was why Atlantis had been such a welcome offer, not just because, obviously, who _wouldn't_ jump at the chance to go exploring in another galaxy? Who in their right minds would say no thanks, I think I'll just stay here on Earth and never know the wonders that might lay out there? No, not just because of that, but because it was Chuck's chance to start anew, to completely re-invent himself. Candidates were screened thoroughly to weed out any and all prejudice, and Chuck knew that if he wanted to, at last he could stop hiding and be who he truly was.

And he had. The moment he stepped through the gate to Atlantis had proved to be a turning point for Chuck. The atmosphere here was freer, despite the now familiar threat of impending doom that seemed to envelope the city on occasion. The people here were great, for the most part, and Chuck had already had a couple of flirtatious 'interludes' with guys, first with one of the scientists, an older guy, who had taken Chuck under his wing when they first arrived. He had grown away from him, but Mac had left him with a sense of freedom, the confidence to be who he really was. After that there was no stopping him, and for a while he went a little wild, behaving much the same with the men of that persuasion here as he had back on Earth with women. He had settled down after a while, but the whole experience now left him feeling liberated, and it showed. Of course, there were some people, Rodney McKay for one, who still saw him as fair game, too young and innocent to know what he really wanted, easily influenced. And yes, it amused Chuck to go along with that misconception on occasion. There had been women here too, a few, he just couldn't help himself, and so the lines were blurred. But he wasn't as naive as he sometimes made out, he knew what was what, and he had known his genius fellow Canadian's feelings for a while now.

He knew the guy watched him, and it made him smile. Every day that Rodney had followed him to the canteen he had waited for him to come over, but he never did, so now he was going to do something about it. He couldn't carry on waiting for the older man to make the first move. He wanted McKay, McKay wanted him, so why skirt around the issue? There was something between them, there would be more, Chuck knew that even if McKay didn't, but Chuck liked to play, and the egotistical scientist was such fair game he just couldn't resist.

He strolled down the corridor, the same as he did every day, but instead of turning down toward the canteen he slipped instead into a little used hallway, where he hid behind one of the amazing everlasting plants that had survived for ten thousand years with no water. That concept still tickled him, and he smirked to himself as he waited.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon enough McKay came huffing along the corridor, frowning and talking to himself like he always did. Chuck liked that, it was cute. He let the scientist panic for a minute, before he stepped up behind him.

"Looking for someone?" he asked softly, and was pleased at the reaction his voice brought as McKay span around to look at him accusingly.

"What? Where...? Wh..." Rodney stuttered, "No..."

Chuck smiled, a sly, amused little smile as he noted the nervousness obvious in McKay's tone, and he took a small step toward him as the scientist backed away.

"Oh," he replied, pouting a little as he took another step closer. "That's a shame, because I was kinda hoping you were looking for me..."

Another step, until he had Rodney right where he wanted him, back hard up against the wall.

"What? Wh... Why...?" McKay squeaked, pressing himself further back against the wall, and that only made Chuck smile more.

Wow, this was better than he had hoped. It was as though the guy was _frightened_of him!

He took one more step closer, until his chest was brushing lightly up against the older man's jacket, faces only inches apart.

"You've been watching me," Chuck stated in a low tone, feeling the shivers coursing through Rodney's body as he leaned closer still.

He brought his hands up to rest one either side of the man before him on the cool wall. He liked this game.

"I thought maybe you might want something from me..." he murmured.

He leaned further in, lips almost touching Rodney's, warm breath tickling across the slight stubble which shadowed the scientist's jaw. He saw Rodney close his eyes in anticipation, and a small smile curved the corner's of Chuck's mouth. He was tempted, oh so very tempted, but no. It could wait. When he finally did kiss Rodney it wouldn't be in the middle of a hallway where any minute anyone could walk past and see them. It would be somewhere private, somewhere comfortable, somewhere they wouldn't have to worry about being caught. Because once Chuck kissed him he had the feeling he wouldn't be able to stop.

Reluctantly he pulled back, giving McKay one last, longing glance before slipping silently away through the halls of Atlantis.


End file.
